


love like bread, golden and familiar

by lavenderlotion



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bakery Shop Owner Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Making Out, Mutant Husbands, Professor Charles Xavier, Teasing, Translation Available
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23617846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderlotion/pseuds/lavenderlotion
Summary: Charles snorted his sip of scalding tea up his nose and began choking, hitting his chest with his fist before he started breathing again. He stared at disbelief as his entire lecture class began murmuring, some laughing, and spent a solid minute clearing his throat as he desperately grasped for something suitable to say before choking out, “Excuse me,what?”
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Comments: 21
Kudos: 147
Collections: X-Salon Challenge Works





	love like bread, golden and familiar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [homosociality](https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosociality/gifts).



> Written for the X-Salon’s AU April! I’m working on the Colossus card, and this is for the Bakery square!
> 
> Read this fic in Chinese [here!](https://tophanzhan.lofter.com/post/1f5ecc39_1c8e247ce)

“Dr. Xavier?” called out a faceless student from his lecture class. He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the crowd for the student, cursing himself over forgetting his spectacles _yet again._

 _Finally,_ his eyes snagged on a bright-eyed young man who was leaning forward in his seat with floppy bangs dangling in his face, what appeared to be _lipstick,_ and an arm waving about, which must have been the student in question. 

“Yes, my boy?” he asked, sorting through the papers on his desk. The students were supposed to be taking this time to read over their syllabus before Charles went through it with them, and he _had_ asked for any questions to be saved until later. Well... he could only hope for so much for a class of first years. 

Charles tried for a smile as he kept eyes on the boy, waiting for him to ask a question that was, most likely, redundant seeing as how he was almost certain that he would be answering it during his run down. Still, he wasn’t going to discourage a student from speaking up, and he took a sip from his thermos as he started to speak.

“Are you single?” 

Charles snorted his sip of scalding tea up his nose and began choking, hitting his chest with his fist before he started breathing again. He stared at disbelief as his entire lecture class began murmuring, some laughing, some hissing, and spent a solid minute clearing his throat as he desperately grasped for something suitable to say before choking out, “Excuse me, _what?”_

The boy who’d asked the outrageous question slunk a little in his seat under the gaze of his classmates, before he seemed to draw up his strength as he pushed those bangs away from his face before he once again asked, “I’ve asked if you’re married.”

“Right...” Charles trailed, wheeling himself a little backward and then a little forward just to give himself something to do that wasn’t pulling his hair out or evicting the young man from his class. 

He narrowed his eyes and tried to determine if the boy knew he was queer and was trying to make some sort of stand against homosexuality—which had, in fact, happened once before—or if he was... well, if he was bravely announcing his own sexuality to an entire group of people. He tried to formulate a response, but ended up trying to earn himself some more time by asking, “Right, yes. Right, sorry, what’s your name?”

“Gambit,” the boy called, an uncertain smile on his face. 

Charles nodded, and then asked, “What exactly does that have to do with the syllabus, if I may ask?”

Even from several feet away and without his glasses on, Charles could see that the boy’s face had begun to colour with a blush. Oh dear, but now he was beginning to feel guilty, despite how horribly appropriate the question had been for a first-year introductory course on Genetics. Charles had been teaching for nigh a decade and he could confidently say no one had ever before asked after his marital status, not in such a manner as this boy had.

“I... was just curious,” he muttered, slinking back into his seat and then sitting hunched over. Charles would need to meet with him after class and see that he wasn’t too embarrassed, let him know that Charles was a staff member he could come to if he _did_ turn out to be queer, but since Charles’ own cheeks were currently undoubtedly bright red, he wasn’t feeling too charitable. 

“I see,” Charles began, and then tried for the serenest, kindest smile he could possibly muster before he said, “if you don’t mind, class, my romantic life is often not something I touch upon during my lectures, and I’d quite like to keep it that way.”

He nodded and slumped back into his seat, and before anyone could say anything else, Charles launched into a practised script regarding the required reading outlined on the paper each student had before them, and did his very best to move on with his day despite such a wild start. 

* * *

Charles pushed himself up the ramp of _The Brotherhood Bakery_ before pressing the button for the door opener, waiting with his hands folded in his lap as it opened all the way before nodding his thanks at the electronic contraption. The bakery smelt heavenly, as it always did, and Charles smiled at the few regulars he recognized sitting about and doing work at the few tables there were.

He made his way into the back, smiling at the young man at the cash—a polite, if foolhardy boy named Alex, who they’d found rifling through their trash one evening, desperate to feed a very young brother that he was the sole guardian of as their parents had passed away in a plane crash. Now, Alex and his lovely brother Scott lived in the small, single room apartment above the bakery, which rent was paid for right off his pay (which was at least what they told him). 

Alex greeted him back, and the two of them chatted for a moment as there wasn’t anyone at the cash. Charles was helping Alex work through a program at their local community college, since the boy wouldn’t allow Charles to pay for his tuition at the school he worked for. He was doing quite well, and by the time Charles was wheeling into Erik’s back office, there was a calm smile on his face and a warmth in his chest that often came with visiting his husband’s bakery. 

“You will absolutely _not_ believe what one of my students asked me today,” Charles called out, finding his husband hunched over his desk and scribbling away at his books. They had an accountant, a lovely young man named Hank who finalized everything they did, but Erik liked to keep track of the daily goings-on himself. 

“Oh I absolutely will,” Erik parroted back without looking up, causing Charles to snort as he shook his head. “Young people are outrageously bold these days.”

“That’s very true,” Charles murmured, seeing as they both knew Alex very well, and he wheeled over to Erik and looked at what he was working on. Ah, he was taking down a new recipe. “Do you have some of this for me to try?” he asked with interest, looking around the room and pouting at the lack of fresh pastry in sight. 

“Of course I do,” Erik told him with a roll of his eyes, and then asked, “so, what did this young mind inquire of you today?”

Charles flushed, remembering back to the conversation he’d had with the boy after class had been over—Gambit was lovely, if abrasive, and he _was_ queer. His question had been from a place of rather inappropriate interest, and Charles had privately let him know that yes, he _did_ have a husband, and that _yes,_ he was very happily married to that husband—which had caused a certain light to appear behind the boy’s eyes that Charles was studiously not thinking about. 

“A young man asked if I was married today,” Charles announced, watching Erik’s face to see how he would react. 

Disappointingly, he didn’t react at all. He merely hummed and asked, “And?”

“And!? Erik, I told him that wasn’t something I felt comfortable answering!” Charles exclaimed, looking at Erik in shock. 

Erik, who stood from his stool to climb onto his lap, and with an incredibly handsome smile, asked him, “You’re not embarrassed of me, are you Shatz?”

Charles’ hands landed on Erik’s hips and he held him close, angling his face up to brush their lips sweetly together as his irritation melted away when he realized Erik was only teasing him. “I’m wearing your ring, am I not?”

Erik chuckled into the kiss, fingers slipping down Charles’ neck and then tugging at the necklace he wore his ring on as he didn’t like the way it pressed against his wheels when he was making longer trips. “You mean you _hide_ my ring?”

“Oh, you foolish man,” Charles muttered, then put Erik’s lips to a _much_ better use than sassing him. 

* * *

After some time kissing, Charles pulled back enough to whisper, “Don’t forget about that new recipe,” against Erik’s mouth, and his husband laughed loudly before swooping in and claiming Charles’ lips in a kiss so fierce he could think of nothing else.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi to me on [tumblr](https://lavender-lotion.tumblr.com/)!  
> comments and kudos are much appreciated! 
> 
> i run an x-men discord server! check it out [here!](https://discord.gg/3uG3VNP)  
> speaking of, some alternate titles provided by the discord were:  
>  _baked; Life is what you bake of it; you bake some you lose some; Whisk-y business; wakey bakey; rise and shine; so that the bread may taste whiter; butter my croissant; a love i ripped through like it was bread; i nearly dropped my croissant; the diabetic dreams of cake; Bakery AU; and the windows were gingerbread; the ginger bread man and the scottish shortbread boi; Summa cum lauge; All you knead is love; Recipe for disaster; Donut worry, be happy_


End file.
